Saft

Last Friday, $95.5 million in stimulus money from the U.S. Department of Energy helped open Saft's 16th facility worldwide. This factory, referred to by Saft as the world's most advanced automated lithium-ion battery site, is located in Jacksonville, FL.

Last week, Johnson Controls and Saft announced that they have agreed to dissolve their joint lithium-ion motive battery joint venture that they formed back 2006. The parties' agreement to terminate their tie up will put an end to legal proceedings between the two firms.

Electric scooters are a portion of the two-wheeled market that's starting to heat up and French manufacturer Peugeot is looking to re-enter the segment with its battery-powered e-Vivacity. Peugeot's first dive into the electric scooter market took place back in 1996 with the Scoot'elec. Unlike that model, which used nickel-cadmium batteries, the e-Vivacity sports an advanced lithium-ion pack from manufacturer Saft. The battery maker says that the e-Vivacity can be recharged in four hours using a

We'd venture a guess that a significant percentage of military operations require some sort of stealth and believe that real-world offensives probably bare little resemblance to those made-for-TV shoot -'em-ups that many of us watch on a regular basis. With that in mind, Saft's recent unveiling of li-ion battery technology designed exclusively for stealthy military operations makes perfect sense.

Perhaps a flock-like approach to building lithium batteries for vehicles is what it'll take. A new alliance has been formed between the Argonne National Laboratory and 14 US companies to try and "perfect" li-ion batteries for cars, the lab announced this week. The alliance, called The National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture, will ask for between $1 and $2 billion from the US government over five years to help with the task. Much has been made of the way that Americ

The State of Wisconsin will give Johnson Controls-Saft a half-million dollar grant to aid in the development of hybrid battery technology, it was announced yesterday. The grant is part of Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle's Clean Energy Wisconsin Plan, and requires Johnson Controls-Saft to invest $500,000 of its own money - I wouldn't be surprised it it goes into the company's Battery Technology Center in Milwaukee - to get the matching funds from the state. The company says it was given the grant "s

When Ford handed over the keys to a plug-in Escape hybrid to Southern California Edison last December, one of many secrets the companies kept to themselves was which battery maker was responsible for the lithium-ion batteries fulfilling the electric part of the equation. The company has now been revealed and it's Johnson Controls-Saft, which has a dedicated li-ion battery plant in France. Johnson Controls will be providing the li-ion batteries for all of the PHEV Escapes for Ford's demonstration

Johnson Controls and Saft have a partnership to produce lithium ion batteries for automotive applications. Among other projects they are one of the two suppliers chosen for GM's Saturn Vue plug-in hybrid program. Saft has also provided lithium ion battery packs for concept vehicles such as the Chevy Sequel and Ford HySeries drive Edge. The two companies are opening a new plant in Nersac, France to manufacture lithium batteries for a variety of car-makers including Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler and Gen

In January, Johnson Controls Inc (JCI) and Saft Advanced Power Solutions, a Paris-based battery company, combined efforts in a joint venture (JCS) to further the development of lithium-ion batteries for vehicle applications. Last month, the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium, an umbrella organization involving collaborative research between DaimlerChrysler, Ford and GM, along with the U.S. Department of Energy awarded the joint venture a 2-year contract to continue its research and development.